Doug Herman

With care and maintenance, old airplanes seem to live nearly forever. Look at the DC-10 fleet at FedEx and UPS. Late at night in Memphis and Louisville, you can't see the moon for all the DC-10s filling the sky.

If it's not safe, it's not safe. Sooner or later you have to let the person whose ass is going to die in the crash with you make the call. We pay the folks at the controls to get us there in one piece, and we can't let ownership, with a huge insurance cushion in case something "unfortunate" happens, make the make that decision for the pilot. If I'm going up in the air, I want the guy/gal up front, who has the same to lose as me, making the go/no go decisions. Flying is an unnatural act for humans, so let's not let some desk jockey get in the mix.

Controlled or autonomous, drones are going to end up in controlled airspace and sooner or later (most likely sooner), people will die because of an encounter between them and real aircraft. This is a really bad idea.

It will be a real serious strategic and marketing decision. The public aversion to turboprops vs the inability to get out of town on an airplane. If the projection is correct that upwards of 40 markets will lose air service, and if the savior comes with props on the wings, it's going to be an easy choice. Do you fly out of, say, Cheyenne on a shiny new turboprop or drive all the way to Denver to fly on one of the big guys. I "get" the flying public's dislike of the older turboprops like the Dash 8 and the (shudder) Beech 1900 still in use on some short-hop commuter lines, though.